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ADDRESS 

DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



AT THE ANNUAL MEETINGS, 



ALBANY, FEBRUARY 12, 1863, 



By Hon. E. CORNELL. 



-A.DDRESS 



DELIVERED AT THE 



ANNUAL MEETING 



N. I mn MRicuiTiiRiii wm 



!*<. 



ALBANY, FEBRUARY 12, 1863, 

/ 

/ 

Bv EZRA CORNELL, President. 




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PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY. 



ALBANY: 

PRINTED BY CHARLES VAN BENTHUYSEN. 
1863. 



ADDRESS. 



Gentlemen of the New York State Agricultural 

Society : 

This meeting marks the close of the past and 
the commencement of a new year with our 
Society. The year that has passed has been the 
most eventful of any in the history of our country 
— remarkable alike for the devastating ravages of 
war, in the Southern section of our Union, and 
the extraordinary prosperity and rich reward of 
agricultural pursuits in the Northern and Western 
sections of the same Union. The State of New 
York, under the blessing of a kind Providence, 
has never perhaps enjoyed a higher degree of 
prosperity than during the year which has just 
closed. 

The labors of the husbandman have been re- 
warded with abundant harvests, and with a ready 
and satisfactory market for his products ; he has 
also been exempt, in a remarkable degree, from 
pestilential visitations, from unseasonable and 



unpropitious weather, and from the ravages of 
noxious insects. 

The heavy drafts upon our farm Laborers, caused 
by the necessities of the Government, to meet 
and suppress a wicked and gigantic rebellion, 
waged by the slave power for its overthroAV, was 
promptly responded to by volunteers from the 
free and brave sons of our farmers, who, like 
Cincinnatus, left the plow in the furrow and 
rushed to the defence of their country and its 
free institutions, leaving the work at home to be 
performed by the reserve corps of the farm, aided 
by the increased application of the mechanical 
devices which the inventive talent of our people 
is annually placing at the disposal of the farmer 
as a substitute for manual labor. These sources 
have been ample, all the requirements of agri- 
culture have been supplied, and the condition of 
the farms of the State, it is believed, was never 
better at the commencement of a new season than 
at present for the reception of seeds for the spring 
crops. 

The advantages that have enabled the great 
agricultural interest of the State to sustain itself 
so triumj)liantly, perform all the labors and duties 
requisite for the growth, gathering and marketing 



of a crop exceeding the full average of the pro- 
duction of the State, during a season when more 
than one hundred thousand laborers have been 
drawn from the tillage of the soil to the destructive 
pursuits of war, is the result, mainly, of the 
operations of the New York State Agricultural 
Society in encouraging every invention and every 
improvement which tends to lessen manual labor 
on the farm, and render more efficient such as are 
indispensable in the pursuits of agriculture. 

At the period when the Society was organized, 
the plow and the harrow were the only implements 
in general use upon the farm which had been 
brought to a tolerable state of efficiency, or that 
have retained a place among the farm implements 
of the present day, and these have, since that 
period, been so improved as to perform better 
w^ork with a diminished outlay of power. It was 
then customary to expend from four to six days 
of manual labor in hoeing an acre of corn. Now, 
one day, with a horse-hoe, or an improved culti- 
vator, is adequate to the tillage of an acre so 
perfectly, without the intervention of the hand- 
hoe, that the average production per acre is fully 
sustained. The mowing-machine, horse-rake and 
horse-pitchfork, have so completely robbed the 



6 

hay-field of the terrors of severe lahor that the 
aged and infirm members of the household can 
supply the necessary demand, and cut as much 
grass in one day with the machine as ten of 
the most stalwart men could cut with the scythe 
in the same time, while the housing of the hay is 
alike facilitated by the use of the other imple- 
ments. The reaper is working a like revolution 
in our fields of grain. Without the use of this 
machine, thousands of acres of wheat Avould have 
remained unharvested during the past summer in 
the grain-growing regions of the West. 

And so we might canvass the whole field of 
farm labor, and we should find a ready helper at 
hand, in the form of some machine or improved 
implement, in every department. Even in some 
of our largest dairies, machinefry has taken the 
place of the milk-maid. In one instance which 
has come to my knowledge, three persons, with 
the aid of the " Yankee cow-milker," as the 
machine was termed at the great Exhibition in 
London, perform the milking in a dairy which 
required the labor of twenty persons before the 
machine was introduced. The proprietor assured 
me that the cows were milked more satisfactorily 
now than formerly, and would remain in milk 



longer with the use of the machine than they did 
when the milking was performed by hand. 

Much of this improvement and many of these 
new inventions may be traced to suggestions or 
encouragements held out by this Society, or to 
ideas or thoughts which were quickened into 
active inquiry and directed to inventive channels 
by visits to our Annual Fairs, or occasional imple- 
ment trials. By the opportunity thus afforded for 
the farmer and the mechanic to meet together an- 
nually, where they can cultivate each others 
acquaintance, examine each others productions, 
learn each others wants, interchange with each 
other views as to the defects of this machine and the 
improvements applicable to that, where dormant 
ideas are quickened into life by chance suggestions, 
which result in the invention of a new machine or 
the improvement of an old one, the State of New 
York has received benefits, the value of which are 
as a thousand to one to all the pecuniary aid the 
Society has drawn from the Treasury of the State. 

The vast benefits derived from this organiza- 
tion, in the manner above suggested, are by no 
means the only ones resulting from it. Every 
branch of production upon the farm is stimulated 
by it. The farmer sees something at the Fair 



8 

that he had not seen before. He hears soinethins: 
that is new to him. He revolves the matter over 
in his mind, as he returns to his own quiet home, 
and comes to the conclusion that he will try the 
experiment. The trial is made, it j^roves a suc- 
cess, and he wonders that he had never thought 
of it before. 

The evening discussions held during our Fairs 
are important in this point of view, and are very 
deservedly increasing in popularity. Farmers 
attending them listen to the discussion of subjects, 
in which they are directly interested and of which 
they know much, by practical men like them- 
selves, and it is hardly possible that they should 
fail to give birth to new ideas, stimulate profitable 
reflection, and ripen into some improvements. 

Our organization, however beneficial it has been 
to the great farming interests of the State, how- 
ever valuable it has proved to the manufacturing 
and mechanical industry of our people, however 
convenient as a channel through which the science 
and knowledge of agriculture is collected and dis- 
seminated throughout the world, is still far from 
being perfect — far short of what it should be or 
what is practicable. The organization of the 
Society should be so perfected as to secure active 



9 

representation and co-operation in every county 
of the State, that every town should feel and 
recognize the influence of its usefulness, and every 
school district should know that it was recognized 
by the State Society as a component part of the 
great industrial hive of the Empire State, whose 
interests it was the duty and pleasure of the 
Society to watch over and to promote. 

Details for the improvement of our organization 
would be out of place here, but the subject should 
occupy the earnest attention of the officers and 
friends of the Society and of the agriculturists of 
the State. Our State and County Societies, im- 
perfect as they are, have earned a much higher 
appreciation than they have yet received by the 
Legislative authorities of the State, representing 
as they do the most important branch of industry 
in the State, and by which the millions of our 
people are fed. 

The amount of capital invested in agricultural 
pursuits and the annual products of the same in 
the State of New York, as exhibited by the census 
of 1860, and the increase of the same during the 
preceding ten years, are as follows : Cash value 
of farms, $803,343,393, an increase over the like 

estimated value in 1850 of $248,796,751. Value 

2 



10 

of ftxrm implements, $29,1GG,5G5, an increase in 
ten years of $7,081,039. Value of farm stock, 
such as horses, cattle, sheep, swine, and other 
animals, $82,293,917, increase in ten years $2,- 
916,407. Making a total capital invested of $914,- 
803,875, and an aggregate increase in ten years of 
$258,824,797. Annual products, embracing grain, 
hay and field crops of all kinds, $67,072,011, an 
increase over the same class of crops in 1850 of 
$7,076,548. Value of animal products, such as 
cattle slaughtered, wool, butter and cheese, $38,- 
025,698, increase in ten years, $6,588,598. Value 
of orchard products, beeswax, honey, maple sugar 
and domestic manufactures, $5,876,968, increase 
in ten years, $1,623,354. Making a total of an- 
nual products of $110,974,677, against $96,786,177 
in 1850, an aggregate increase of $14,188,500. 

This sum of total products, $110,974,677, em- 
braces the cost of farm labor, an item, the actual 
amount of which, we have no census data to 
determine, but we can approximate to the amount 
by assuming that it equals the usual proportion 
allowed by the landlord to the tenant on leased 
farms, where the tenant furnishes only the labor, 
which proportion as far as my knowledge extends 
is one-third. Applying this rule to the case, we 



11 

have the sum of $36,991,559, as the cost of labor 
on all the farms of this State in 18G0, and the 
sum of $32,262,059 for 1850. These labor sums 
deducted from the value of the year's gross pro- 
duction, gives us $73,983,118 in 1860, and $64,- 
524,118 in 1850, as the earnings of the capital 
invested in farming in this State, or a trifle over 
8 per cent, for 1860, and neai*ly 10 per cent, for 
1850. This calculation, however, is based upon a 
valuation of about $29 per acre for all the lands in 
the State, which were returned in the census of 
1850, and a valuation of $38.25 per acre in 1860. 
If we estimate the lands at the actual valuation 
of 1860, we find a profit of seven and a half per 
cent, in 1850, and a trifle over eight per cent, 
profit in 1860. 

This result shows an increase in the value of 
our farms, and a corresponding increase in the 
estimated capital invested, an increasing ratio of 
production, and a satisfactory per centage of profit 
upon the increased aggregate capital. 

Here the best data at our command, gives a 
blunt contradiction to two of the errors that have 
taken possession of the minds of many people, in 
regard to agricultural pursuits in this State. First, 
that the soil is undergoing a gradual but sure pro- 



12 

cess of deterioration, or diminution of its power 
to produce continued crops, and second, that farm- 
ing, though very useful in supplying food, is 
unproductive of profit, and hence not desirable as 
a source of investment. 

These very satisfactory results, which are shown 
by the figures of the census, are in no small de- 
gree the direct and legitimate fruits of our Agri- 
cultural Societies, and attest the wisdom of the 
Legislature, in its venture of a very small encour- 
agement in appropriations to those Societies. And 
it may not be out of place here, to lay before the 
farmers of the State, as nearly as may be, the 
amount and kind of encouragement, they have 
received at the hands of their Government, Avhich 
is as follows. Since 1841, the Legislature has 
annually appropriated $8,000, to be divided be- 
tween the State and Countv Societies as follows. 

4/ 

To the State Society $700, and the balance to the 
County Societies, proportionate to the population 
of their respective counties. Of this sum, about 
one-third remains in the treasury of the State, as 
the proportion assigned to counties that have no 
Societies, or that have not complied with the 
terms of the appropriation, that a like amount 
should be raised by the Society by subscription or 



13 

otherwise, and their proceedings reported annual- 
ly to the Secretary of State. 

In 1848, 1849, and 1850, an appropriation of 
$G00 the first, and $1,000 each for the other two 
years, was made, for the old State Hall, one-third 
of which was used by the State Agricultural 
Society, and the balance by the Regents of the 
University, for their Geological Museum. In 
1850, and 1851, an appropriation of $100 each 
year, for the Museum of the Society. This was 
the commencement of that valuable collection of 
curiosities pertaining to agriculture, which is now 
looked upon with so much satisfaction by every 
farmer who visits the capital of his State. In 
each of the years of 1851, '52, and '53, $800 was 
appropriated for the expenses of the old State 
Hall, and in each of the years 1854, '55, '56, and 
'57, $1,000 was appropriated for the same jDurpose, 
one-third of which is properly chargeable to this 
Society. In 1857, an appropriation of $40,000 was 
made for building the new hall, one-third of which 
was assigned to the use of the State Agricultural 
Society, and two-thirds to the Geological Depart- 
ment of the Regents of the University, and 
$4,500 for fitting up the rooms assigned to the 
use of the Society. 



14 

In 1857, '58, '59, '60, Gl, and 02, $2,000 was 
appropriated each year for expenses of new hall, 
one-third of which is chargeable to the Society. 
There has also been appropriated, $9,000 for the 
entomological researches conducted by Dr. Fitch 
during the past nine years. 

The printing of the Transactions of the Society, 
a volume which is recognized at home and abroad 
as the most valuable practicable treatise on agri- 
culture, is done at the expense of the State, as 
one of its Legislative documents, and is thus em- 
braced in the general printing expenses of the 
State, and I am unable to separate it therefrom, 
so as to determine its cost. 

Thus it appears that, aside from printing the 
annual Legislative Report on Agriculture, the 
whole amount appropriated by the great State of 
New York, for all purposes, in aid of its greatest 
and most vital interest, during a period of twenty- 
two years, is only $160,112, or the paltry sum of 
$7,278 per annum. Surely the farmers of the 
Empire State have not been the " sturdi/ beggars'^ 
who have besieged the Treasury of the State from 
year to year. 

Notwithstanding the satisfactory statements by 
which we are able to show the healthy and prosper- 



15 

ous condition of agricultural pursuits, there are 
large fields of improvement open to the enterprise 
of the farmer, some of which I desire to refer to 
at this time. 

My attention has been directed to our present 
system of fencing, and the enormous outlay of 
capital it requires annually to support it, and 
hence the question, have we been governed by cor- 
rect principles in the inclosure of our fields ? or 
have we been drifting along on the tide of appa- 
rent necessity, without reference to principle ? 

In England, the Agricultural Societies are offer- 
ing premiums to those who will eradicate the 
greatest amount of hedge fence during the year. 
Some of the tenant farmers insist upon a stipula- 
tion in their leases authorizing them to reclaim 
the lands occupied by the hedges, thus adding to 
the productive area of the farm, and lessening the 
annual outlay for supporting the fence. I have 
heard of one such farmer who had thus added 
forty-five acres to the tillable land of his farm 
within a few years. 

On the Continent of Europe there are no fences, 
or at least so few that they are an exception to 
the rule. The traveler will pass hundreds of 
miles without seeing a fence of any kind, or even 



16 

noticing any land marks dividing farms, and no 
encouragement is offered there by Agricultural 
Societies for inclosing farms with fences. 

May it not then be fairly questioned whether 
we are not pursuing the practice of fencing our 
farms into small fields, at a large annual expense, 
greatly to our own disadvantage ? With a view 
of inducing our farmers to reflect upon this sub- 
ject, I submit the following estimates of the cost 
of fences. 

To fence a farm into square fields of two and a 
half acres each, crediting half of the fence to the 
adjoining field, requires forty rods of fence, or 
sixteen rods per acre, which, at $15 per thousand 
for rails, and $10 per thousand for stakes, will 
cost at least thirty cents per rod, or $4.80 jDcr 
acre, and entail an annual expense in the inter- 
est of money, natural decay of material, and 
labor for repairs, of nearly or quite one dollar per 
acre. Fields of five acres each require eleven 
and a half rods per acre, costing $3.45 per acre. 
Ten acre fields require eight rods of fence per 
acre, costing $2.40 per acre. Twenty acre fields 
reduce the fence to five and a half rods per acre, 
at a cost of $1.G5 per acre. Forty acres in a field 
require but four rods per acre, costing only $1.20 



17 

per acre ; and one hundred acres may be inclosed 
in one field with two and a half rods per acre, 
costing 75 cents per acre. 

Small farms are quite generally fenced into 
fields of five acres each, and large farms are re- 
garded as satisfactorily divided if the fields 
measure fifteen or twenty acres each. Assuming 
ten acres as the average size of fields into which 
our farms are divided by fences, we arrive at the 
following result as to the cost of fencing. 

A farm of 100 acres thus divided would require 
800 rods of fence, which, of rails and stakes, 
would cost $240, to which must be added ten per 
cent, for annual decay and repairs, and seven per 
cent, for the use of capital invested in the fence, 
making $40.80 per annum. This fence will occupy 
a strip of land at least four feet wide, and of the 
length of 800 rods, will make twelve and a half 
acres, costing say $30 per acre, which we will as- 
sume to be the average value of the farming lands 
of the State, making the sum of $375, the annual 
interest of which is $26.25, to be charged to the 
annual fence account, swelling it to $67.05, as the 
annual cost of sustaining the cheapest class of 
fence on a farm of one hundred acres. 

To the above might properly be added a con- 
3 



18 

siderable sum as damages sustained annually from 
the rank growth of noxious weeds, which find 
shelter in the fence corners, and ripen a luxuriant 
crop of seeds to dispute the j)OSsession of the 
adjoining fields, on each return of spring, with 
the seeds upon which the farmer relies for his 
crop, increasing the exj^ense of cultivation, and 
diminishing the productiveness of the soil. 

The sum representing the cost of the fence and 
interest on the value of land occupied by it, multi- 
plied by the 120,469 farms of 100 acres each, that 
the improved lands of the State of New York 
would make if thus divided, represents the vast 
sum of $7,830,485, as the annual cost of fences in 
this State. The above estimate is based upon the 
cost of a cheap rail fence. The cheapest fence I 
can build on my own fiirm is of hemlock boards 
and chestnut posts, costing me one dollar per rod. 
It is therefore apparent to my mind that the 
average cost of fencing is much above the figures 
that I have given, and may safely be assumed to 
cost $10,000,000 per annum. As an equivalent 
for this vast annual outlay of money, we enjoy 
the privilege of turning our cattle out to harvest 
their own living, by grazing the pastures and 
gleaning the stubble fields, or running at large in 
the public highway. Is it a good investment ? 



19 

Do we get a fair and full equivalent for the invest- 
ment of $150,000,000, for such it really is, as the 
$10,000,000 which we annually pay to sustain our 
fences, with our farms as collaterals, would secure 
the use of that sum by loan ? I think we do not ; 
and I desire that our farmers should begin to 
reflect on this subject, and see if it is not time to 
commence a reform in that direction. 

By confining cattle to the barn-yard or small 
inclosures, and feeding them in stalls, the neces- 
sity for interior fences on the farm would be 
removed. That this mode of keeping cattle is 
not only practicable, but highly beneficial to the 
interest of the farmer, is fully demonstrated by 
numerous and repeated experiments, made upon 
both a large and small scale in Europe and 
America, some of which I will briefly refer to. 

The Hon. Josiah Quincy, of Massachusetts, in 
an able essay on the soiling of cattle, says : " Satis- 
fied in my own mind of the beneficial effects of 
the practice, I adoj^ted it in the year 1814, and 
adhered to it until the year 1822, keeping from 
fifteen to twenty head of milch cows, with satisfac- 
tory success." In 1822, Mr. Quincy left his farm, 
and did not resume its management until 1847, 
when he again commenced the practice of soiling. 
Of this second experiment he says: "Resuming 



20 

its management in 1847, I immediately returned 
to the practice of soiling, resorting to the essays 
I had formerly j)ublished, to revive my knowledge 
on the subject, and from that time to the present, 
1857, have persevered in the practice, with such 
entire satisfaction, that no consideration would 
induce me to adopt any other. Since 1847, I 
have kept from thirty to thirty-five head of cows 
in this way, so that, in my mind, my experience 
is conclusive on the subject." 

Of the advantages resulting from " soiling," Mr. 
QuiNCY says : " 1st. It saves land. 2d. It saves 
fencing. 3d. It economized food. 4th. It kept 
the cattle in better condition and greater comfort. 
5th. It produced more milk. 6th. It increased 
immensely the quantity and quality of the man- 
ure." As to saving land, Mr. Quincy says : " One 
acre soiled from will produce as much as three 
acres pastured. This is enough, although some 
European writers assert the benefit is equal to one 
in seven, this great difference arising from the 
mode in which the one acre is cultivated and en- 
riched for succulent products." On the subject of 
health he says : " A popular objection to this mode 
of keeping milch cows is, that want of exercise 
must affect injuriously the health of the animal. 
To this, European writers, some of whom have 



21 

kept in this way large herds, reply that they 
' never had one sick, or one die, or one miscarry,' 
in consequence of this mode of keeping. After 
more than ten years' experience of the same prac- 
tice, my experience justifies me in uniting my 
testimony to theirs on this point." 

As to what class of farmers can adopt soiling 
successfully, he says: " The system I advocate has 
reference to arable land, to that portion of it on 
every man's farm, which is capable of being ploived 
and mowed over.'' Again : " I answer every farmer 
who wants manure at a cheap and easy rate, the 
greatest profit of soiling arises from the quantity 
of manure it enables the farmer to make, more 
than doubling it upon the same stock." 

I could introduce hundreds of pages of testi- 
mony of like high character to prove that it is 
not only ^practicable, but highly advantageous to 
confine cattle to stalls or small inclosures, and 
carry their food to them, in preference to allow- 
ing them to roam over pastures in pursuit of their 
food, but it seems to me uncalled for. The testi- 
mony of Mr. QuiNCY is that of a j^ractical man, 
who after long years of experience in 23racticing 
the system, finds no drawbacks to discourage him, 
and affirms most fully the testimony of many 



22 

others, who have published the result of their 
successful experience in the same system. 

In closing this subject, I would remark that I 
do not urge an indiscriminate destruction of 
fences, or a rash and imperfect adoption of the 
practice of soiling cattle. What I advise is, that 
farmers should reflect upon this subject, and wise- 
ly j)repare themselves for a change that must 
come sooner or later. I have commenced by 
doubling the size of my fields, lessening the 
quantity of inside or division fences, and strength- 
ening the character of outside fences, assuming 
that those will be the last we shall dispense with. 

The improvement of farm stock is a subject 
deserving more of our attention than it is receiv- 
ing. It is true that by comparing the present 
with the past, we can show a marked improve- 
ment, and trace much of our present prosperity 
to that cause ; but we cannot claim our improve- 
ment to be the result of any system, and I think 
it is fair to assume that our ratio of improvement 
is far below what might be expected from the 
facilities we have at command. I shall not com- 
plain that our farmers do not purchase thorough- 
bred animals of the improved breeds at high 
prices, for the purpose of stocking their farms; 
I think they are wise in not doing so ; I know 



23 

they cannot afford it ; I also know that they can- 
not aiford to neglect the improvement of their 
farm stock. How then can they best do it ? I 
answer by a systematic use of carefully selected 
thorough-bed males, from the improved breeds, 
best adapted to the localities and purposes for 
which the animals are kept. The practice, too 
common among those of our farmers who attempt 
improvement, is to seek one cross with a thorough- 
bred male, and then resort to the use of the half- 
bred offspring. This is back-sliding. The get of 
the half-bred male, will, as a rule, possess less 
merit than he does himself, and hence time is 
passing with a diminished ratio of improvement. 
Let our farmers adopt as a rule the practice of 
using thorough-bred male animals, and discard all 
others, in breeding stock for the dairy or shambles, 
and the following would be the result in ten years, 
allowing the females to come in at two years of 
age. The produce of 1865 would be half-blood. 
Those of 1867 would possess three-fourths of the 
improved blood. Those of 1869 would be seven- 
eighths, and at the expiration of ten years the 
alloy or common blood would be reduced to one 
thirty-second part of that represented in the ani- 
mal, and for all practicable purposes, except breed- 
ing, the produce of the fifth and sixth generation, 



24 

and beyond, would rank in value with the improv- 
ed breed. 

The facilities for such improvement we have at 
hand, in reasonable abundance and great excel- 
lence. Our herds of the improved breeds repre- 
sent the most noted tribes of the English herds; 
and the recent bold and praiseworthy experiment 
of our friend, Samuel Thorne, Esq., of Dutchess 
county, of sending his young bulls back to Eng- 
land for a market, has given us an opportunity to 
compare American bred with English Short Horns, 
and demonstrate to our English friends that their 
improved breeds do not deteriorate on American 
soil. Not only the Short Horns, but the Devons, 
the Herefords, the Ayrshires, and other breeds of 
undoubted purity of blood, and great excellence 
of quality, are to be found within the limits of 
our own State, at prices which should not be 
regarded as a bar to their general use. 

I would suggest to the County Agricultural 
Societies that they could do much to stimulate 
this desired improvement by encouraging system 
in the selection of breeding animals, and the 
establishment of a record or herd book under the 
control of the Society for the entry of grade 
animals. 

To impress the question of improvements of 



25 

our stock more fully upon the minds of our farm- 
ers, I will allude to a few facts in our dairy 
statistics, and I will select those of Tompkins 
county, being more familiar with the improve- 
ments of that county. The census returns of 
1845, for that county, give an average of 102 lbs. 
of butter for each cow. For 1850, the average 
was 109 lbs. For 1855, it was 113 lbs., and the 
census returns of 1860, which really give the 
result of 1859, when our pastures were injured by 
severe drouth, and large quantities of grasshoppers, 
give the average at 117 lbs. The statistics of that 
county, rejDresenting the crops of 1860, show the 
average to be 128 lbs. That year the pastures 
were abundant and the dairy crop a full average. 
In 1850, Tompkins county stood three pounds per 
cow below the average of the State, and in 1860 
she stands four pounds above the average of the 
State by the census returns, and fifteen pounds 
above by the privately obtained statistics. Several 
entire daries averaged 200 lbs. to the cow. One 
entire school district averaged 165 lbs., and three 
of the towns averaged respectively 131, 132, and 
143 lbs. per cow. It is therefore safe to assume 
that the cows of Tompkins county, at the present 
time will supply milk that will make 25 lbs. more 



26 

butter per head, than woukl the cows of 1845, 
thereby increasing the butter crop of the county 
$55,537 per annum, there being 14,810 cows, 
and the butter computed at fifteen cents per 
pound. 

This improvement commenced in 1842, by the 
introduction of thorough-bred Short Horn bulls. 
The improvement has not however been as great 
as it might have been, and I am confident if pro- 
perly pressed it may be carried to an average of 
200 lbs. of butter per cow, for the county, and for 
all the best dairy counties of the State. If I am 
right, and I believe that I am, then the farmers 
of my county have the means within reach, of in- 
creasing the annual value of their butter crop 
$150,000 above what it now is, with little or no 
increase in the cost of keeping their cows, as a 
poor cow consumes as much food as a good one. 
A like improvement for the whole State would 
produce the sum of $11,798,157 per annum. 

There is a like pressing need for the improve- 
ment of our sheep, and it is readily attained by 
the same means, the judicious selection of male 
animals for breeding purjDOses. I know of in- 
stances where one pound of wool per head on an 
average through a flock of lambs, above what 
their dams produced, has been the result of the 



27 

first cross of a good ram upon a flock of fine wool 
ewes. Such results are being produced here and 
there, all over the State where sheep are kept, 
and still, the facts are not generally known, or at 
least are not so impressed upon the minds of the 
flock-masters of the neighborhood, as to lead to 
prompt and decided improvements. 

The census of 1860 shows the number of sheep 
in our State, to be 2,657,855, which jDroduced a 
clip of 9,454,473 lbs. of wool, or an average of 
about 3 lbs. 12 ounces per head. It is probable 
that there are now, as many as 3,000,000 in the 
State, and I believe it is within our power at a 
very small cost, to bring the average product of 
wool up to 5 lbs. 10 ounces, without any increase 
in the consumption of food. I make this state- 
ment upon my knowledge of flocks of Spanish 
Merino sheep, having an average weight of car- 
cass after shearing of 75 lbs., which produce 5 lbs. 
and 12 ounces of clean brook-washed wool, with- 
out grain or extra keep in any form, and it is the 
general calculation that sheep will consume food 
in proportion to their weight, and I believe 75 lbs. 
is below the average weight of carcass, of such of 
our sheep as are kept mainly for the production of 
wool. Hence I regard it safe, to assume that the 
consumption of food by the sheep of the State is 



28 

as great as would be necessary, if the flocks were 
so improved in quality as to produce an increased 
average of two pounds of wool per head. Such 
an improvement would add 6,000,000 pounds to 
our annual clip of wool, and $3,000,000 annually 
to our available means. 

It appears then, that the farmers of our State 
are reaping $15,000,000 per annum less reward, 
than they might do from their dairies and their 
flocks. Will not such ftxcts arrest their attention, 
and lead more directly to the desired improve- 
ment ? What richer field can our County So- 
cieties desire to labor in ? And Avhat higher 
emulation can they seek, than to strive to see 
which shall be the first to bring their county up 
to the indicated standard of improvement ? It ap- 
pears to me to be the highest duty that a County 
Agricultural Society owes to the community 
which sustains it, to study well the condition of 
the agricultural interest of its county, and ascer- 
tain wherein it can be most advantageously im- 
proved, and encourage such improvements, by all 
the means in its power, and to this end, more 
thorough organization is desirable. There should 
be no jealousy between county and town Societies, 
and there will not be, when such Societies are 
organized strictly for the promotion of agriculture 



29 

and horticulture instead of some local village- 
culture. I should rejoice to see an agricultural 
organization in every school district of the State, 
they to be represented in their Town Societies, 
and at their Town Fairs. The Town Societies 
should compete with each other at the exhibitions 
of the County Society, and the County Societies 
in like manner contend for honors before the 
State Society. With our organizations so perfect- 
ed that the State Society, through the proper 
organs of county, town, and school district organ- 
izations, could reach every farmer's fireside, vast 
benefits Avould be derived by our agricultural in- 
terests which are now lost. 

Before closing, I desire to say a word on the /""^ 
subject of education. It cannot be denied that 
we yet have many farmers who adhere to the old 
error that a boy requires a better education if he 
is to leave the farm and seek a living in the other 
professions, than is necessary if he is to continue 
on the farm. This is a great and mischievous 
error. It is placing the young farmer at a disad- 
vantage at every step through life. He can no 
more rank at the head of his profession as a farmer, 
without education, than he could take such rank 
in the profession of law or of medicine w^hile labor- 
ing under the like embarrassment. It is this error 



30 

which has sent the brightest and best educated of 
our farmers' sons from the farm, to seek employ- 
ment in other pursuits of life, and retain at home 
those who have less mental culture and intellectual 
power, as good enough to do the drudgery of the 
farm, until the other professions have robbed the 
farm of many of its brightest ornaments. 

This should no longer continue. It is high time 
that the agricultural interest asserted its rights in 
this matter. The nation recognizes the necessity 
for a higher standard of education for farmers, and 
has generously provided for it. The jDarents of 
those who are to become farmers must recognize 
the same necessity, and husband well the resources 
which the nation places at their disposal, attest- 
ing the wisdom of Congress in the annual im- 
provement of the farmer and the farm, and the 
higher elevation of the agricultural profession. 

The act of the last session of Congress, donating 
public lands to the several States and Territories 
which may provide colleges for the benefit of agri- 
cultural and mechanic arts, provides a quantity 
equal to 30,000 acres to each Senator and Repre- 
sentative in Congress to which the States are 
entitled by the apportionment under the census of 
1860. New York, having thirty-three Senators 
and Representatives, is therefore entitled to 990,- 



31 

000 acres of land, which, if sold at the established 
Government price of one dollar and a quarter per 
acre, will create a fund of $1,237,500, which the 
State is bound by the act to protect and keep 
good as a perpetual fund, which " shall be invested 
in stocks of the United States, or of the State, or 
some other safe stocks, yielding not less than five 
per centum on the par value of said stocks." This 
will produce an annual income of $01,875, to be 
applied " to the endowment, support, and main- 
tenance of at least one college, where the leading 
object shall be, without excluding other scientific 
and classical studies, and including military 
tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are 
related to agriculture and the mechanic arts," 
which, if faithfully administered, will do much to 
place the agricultural student on a level with 
those of other professions. This is a high trust 
confided by the nation to the farmers and 
mechanics of our country, and they must see to 
it, that it is not diverted from its proper channel, 
nor impaired in its usefulness by subdivisions 
among weak and inefficient institutions. 

It is a proper and legitimate duty of this Society 
to foster the cause of agricultural and mechanical 
education, and watch with jealous care the appro- 
priation of this National College fund, to the end 



32 

that it is not perverted from the lofty purposes 
for Avhich it was set apart by Congress. 

In drawing rvy official labors, as the President 
of your Society, to a close, I feel it incumbent 
upon me to express my sincere thanks to my im- 
mediate predecessor, the Hon. George Geddes, and 
to the gentlemen of the Executive Committee, for 
their efficient support and co-operation in con- 
ducting the affairs of the Society, and carrying it 
successfully through the past year, and especially 
during my absence from the country. 

I am under like obligation and embrace the 
present occasion to tender my thanks to the Board 
of Managers of the Monroe County Agricultural 
Society, the Common Council of the city of 
Rochester, and many of the distinguished citizens 
of Rochester, for their generous and efficient aid 
in making preparations for and in conducting our 
last Annual Fair to a successful issue. 

Regretting that it has not been in my power to 
render more valuable services to the Society 
during the past year, and pledging my future co- 
operation in whatever may tend to advance the 
interests of the Society and the cause it has at 
heart, I turn with satisfaction to the performance 
of my last official duty, the introduction of my 
successor, Mr. Edward G. Faile. 



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